(CHICAGO) October 6, 2017—U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded a $243,318 grant to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to replace diesel engines and vehicles to cut harmful emissions and improve air quality.

"Clean diesel technologies not only improve air quality, but advance innovation and support jobs,” said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. "These projects will significantly reduce harmful emissions and directly benefit the health of residents.”

“Without this funding many old, dirty diesel engines would still be operating and polluting daily,” said Mark Sulzbach, MPCA Clean Diesel Grants Manager. “We’ve helped owners buy new delivery trucks and garbage trucks, along with many off-road engine replacements on barge towboats, cranes and even a rock-crusher.”

EPA’s funding will enable MPCA to offer public or private entities the opportunity to reduce diesel emissions through a range of actions, such as replacing older diesel engines, equipment or vehicles with certifiably cleaner ones. EPA provides grants under the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act to protect human health and improve air quality by reducing emissions from diesel engines.

Exposure to diesel exhaust can lead to serious health conditions like asthma and respiratory illnesses and can worsen existing heart and lung disease, especially in children and the elderly. Emissions from diesel engines contribute to the production of ground-level ozone which damages crops, trees and other vegetation, and acid rain, which affects soil, lakes and streams and enters the human food chain via water, produce, meat and fish.